As ever with Lulu, any excuse to put on an offer... :)

This time, there'll be a different offer each day for the next eight days (it's day four today, they didn't send an email for the previous days). As this set of offers started on 14th, which was also when the previous offer ended, it's likely there'll be a new year sale when this one ends...

http://www.lulu.com/holiday_coupons

I had an interesting moment at work. A customer was waiting for service at the jewelry counter, so I paged for a cashier person to come over. As I was walking away, his wife came up, and said she had had no luck finding someone to help them. Then the man pointed at me and said, "She paged for us."

"She."

This was no sales person hoping for my business, nor even a co-worker with an obligation to be tolerant, but a customer, a stranger.

The Family Girl Blogs (aka "The New Working Girl Blogs") Blog #15: Flying is fun? Hah! To see all of Bobbie's Family Girl Blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/28818/family-girl-blogs

I am leaving for Manila at 8:30 this morning.   It's for work, not fun.   I'm arriving in Manila thirty-eight hours later, or Monday 10:30AM Manila time.   And I'm flying back Tuesday 8AM Manila time, and arriving in Reagan twenty-five or so hours later, or Tuesday, 8PM Eastern Standard.   Sixty-three hours, or more than two-and-a-half days of flying time, for all of twenty-one hours in Manila.   and much of that would be time on the road, getting ready, or whatever.   I'd probably just have eight hours with the office guys... yeesh...  

Well, my latest story took a lot out of me. Its total fiction, but I cried writing it. I hope you guys like it.

I notice people have been reading my storybut leaving no comments. I agree with Enemyoffun about comments, please leave some so I know if my story has been enjoyed.

I bought a 3 dvd set of Jim Henson movies: The dark crystal, Labyrinth, and Mirrormask. They are incredible, and its interesting that two of the films have teen girls as the lead characters. Its also kinda interesting how much I could identify with these two girls, and how much I learned from them. Just one of those things, I guess.

Yup, today's the day I take another step further into old-gitness.

I'm fifty-one for fuck's sake, I never imagined reaching twenty-one and after a really odd year, I look back in wonder as whilst some of this year has totally overshadowed the rest - the car accident and all - I've now got a house in France, published my first book and wonder what fifty-one's going to be like.

Dear friends:

An early Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

G-d willing, I will be flying to Israel tomorrow with my wife, and will be lighting my Chanukah Menorah in Jerusalem on December 20. My first visit to Israel. Will be there until December 29.

Best wishes to all

Rami

Here I sit in Sue Towers, quill pen in hand - well it's a keyboard, but what's poetic about a lump of plastic.?

Outside it is dark and the wind is coming up, (too many curries). My typing finger is wearing down to the bone as the story just gets longer and longer.

First I thought that I could do the story in one, easy to manage and digest lump. Then it got too long and as I know that some readers have a short attention span and anything over one thousand words might cause a brain freeze (that's an ironic joke by the way as I am exactly like that) I decided to do it in two parts.

Hi folks

more Gaby over at www.maddybell.com and the first update in my christmas markets pages - the gluhwein mug museum!

ttfn
Mads

I came across this on AOL/Huffington post about Janet Mock telling her boyfriend I WAS BORN A BOY
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-mock/transgender-coming-...
I Don't know how to post link so copy & paste the address - HUGS RICHIE2

Just thought this might bring a smile to your faces.

http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=30018
Click on.

Bev.

HRC's published the 2012 edition of the CEI, and I'm happy to see that my employer is finally rated at 100%! :-) It's been 95% for the last several years (the hold up was trans benefits... They had them, but they were provided on a case-by-case basis despite the exclusion in insurance. The exclusion is no longer in the insurance policies and benefits are awesome!).

Thanks to everyone who left help and support here.

I finally bit the bullet and went through Amazon's copyright process and was able (without using more than my nom-de-plume) demonstrate that it was my story, or at least, that it was not the purported author's story, and they removed it.

Although I did provide the same data for Karen Elizabeth L.'s story, evidently since I did not claim it, they did not remove it.

I am very proud to announce my new novel, Reclamation, is now available at Amazon for the Kindle. It has a transgendered main character but is much more in the form of a mainstream thriller. Worked darn hard on the thing, too! It’s exclusively at Amazon for purchase and as part of their “Kindle Lending Library” for 90 days. The link is: Karin Bishop's Reclamation

Well, last night went much more smoothly, despite my being in some physical pain. But the topper was when I had to tell a co-worker (who is always rather silent around me) that he had to take a pile of pallets outside. He dropped them in the freezer section of the store instead, and then shook his head, Once I got out of range of him, I started giggling, because it occurred to me to wonder if he was being sexist - he just didnt want to take an order from a girl. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

So there I was, Sunday morning club rides and I'm turned up in the normal Welsh drizzle expecting a nice 28 mile amble with the group fours; only to find no other group fours or even group threes had turned up. I'm debating taking off on my own and enjoying a nice pleasurable ride at my own pace all nice and regular like but oooooh nooo!

"No Bev", says Les the club secretary, "come on out with the group twos, we'll take it easy for you."

"Yeah!!!!!" Says I as I look pointedly up into the rain sodden clouds and the 'unsolvable porcine equasions of flight' refuse to leave my head.

We got a phone call from my aunt Pat last night, saying that her eldest son has cancer. Apparently, he had some before, and was cured, but the new one isnt the same as the old. I guess he is estranged from his dad, and Pat is angry that the boy's father cant put aside their differences because he's sick. It reminded me of the rest of my family, who have taken the ability to hold a grudge and perfected it into an art form. One of these days I should find a way to come out to them, but as they are not part of my life much, if they reject me, I dont lose much. Ah, well.

http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12/11/led-child-who-simply...

This is a good article on a family in Maine that are dealing with a transgender kid who is part of a set of identical twins. One is a son, the other a daughter, but biologically/genetically should be about the same.

It would be interesting to see the results of a genetic study and fMRI scan on the two of them. I think it is studies of identical twoins that would be most useful to learn about the sources of being TS, eh?

Meh today I feel like crap. Having cramps that come and go and pretty much exhaust me. No its not the runs/trots/diarrhea. Id take that its not as painful and exhausting. Nor would I be swollen like a frigging balloon either. Wanted to work on my stories but im just so out of it half the time ill skip for today.

There is little girl and her name is Maggie. To everyone that knows her, it is Kitten. They named her that because of the way she is. Full of energy that she uses up in a hurry sharing her love, joy and happiness with everyone and everything around her.

For those who said that I should let my hair grow out and straighten it, I can do that. I have tried to straighten it out and nothing keeps it straight at all. It just keeps curling up on me after dries out. Since I grew up in the military family, I have gotten use to having my hair short. I have a wig that is red and long, so I can wear that if I want to go out. I was thinking along that line right now.

Joshlyn Amanda

Well, last night I was starting to feel a wave a grief coming on, and I got to wondering what I could do to endure it better. Just when things started to look bleak, the song "The only girl in the world" came on over our intercom. Somehow, the song got me out of my rut and made me feel better again. Neat trick, that. I'll have to remember it the next time.

The Family Girl Blogs (aka "The New Working Girl Blogs") Blog #14: Being Mr. Heckles To see all of Bobbie's Family Girl Blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/28818/family-girl-blogs

this was supposed to be a comment, a piece of unsolicited advice, actually, for dorothycolleen, in her blogpost, "Disassociation" -

http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/32731/disassociation

i originally wanted to post it as a comment, but looking at how involved i got in writing it, i thought i'd make it a blog instead. so, i think you'd best read her blog first, so this one will make some sense.

SAN ANTONIO -- A local college student says she was fired from her job for refusing to allow a transgender woman into the women's dressing room. Now she's speaking out, saying her religion conflicts with the store's transgender policy.

Liberty Counsel, a religious advocacy group, is representing 27-year-old Natalie Johnson after she was fired over the Nov. 30 confrontation. Johnson said she was never aware of Macy's transgender policy, but now that she is, she doesn't agree with it.

Of all the aspects of myself that give me trouble, (which are many, and profound) the one that is on my mind at the moment is my ongoing internal narration. I seem to have an author within, recording and commenting on my thoughts and actions from a third person perspective.

I believe the medical term for this is disassociation.

Why is it that every pair of male slacks that I own seem to have a hole in the crotch? I mean, they just come apart at the seams...

Sorry, I'm just ranting and confused by this...

Samantha

I was having look on flickr yesterday seeing what sort of pictures cross dressers post on there when I came across a picture with a copy of one of my stories below it. There were some very complimentery remarks which was nice, and the phot was good and one might have chosen.

My question is. Should I be offended or flattered?

Also without opening yet another e mail account, this time with yahoo does anyone know how to contact folk on flickr?

I more than understand that the things that I write are not for everyone. I tend to deal with harsh subject matter in a pretty straight-forward way that not everyone is comfortable. I get that. But know this about me, I enjoy writing what I do (not that I get some kind of perverse pleasure out of pain and suffering, but the exploring of dark emotional places that few dare to tread gives me a certain strength that allows me to confront the shit in my own life).

Ladies,

If you haven't seen this and live in the UK might I suggest that you take a few moments to review the links below?

Killers of transgender people to get longer sentences A Link to the BBC story which covers the change.

Home Office Transgender equality strategy

I post these without comment:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/gender-reassignment...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/macys-employee-fire...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/michigan-legislatur...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/brooke-fantelli-cal...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16089715

shalimar

I'm having trouble figuring out my ex. Yesterday, after the Christmas do at my brother's, I took my daughter home, and since I didn't have to work, I came into my ex's house for a bit. While I'm there, my ex starts playing with my hair, complimenting me on its softness and length, and making suggestions to help cover up my bald spot. Then today, when I was dropping off my daughter, she noticed I now have pink gloves, and gave me the third degree for their color. Like I said, she confuses me.

Well, classes are over for the semester. That is a great relief as two classes I was taking gave me an incredible level of stress that totally sapped my creative juices. The good news is that I have a month to catch up on writing before new classes start. So I aim to have new 300 Rains, new The Journey is the Destination and hopefully some Whateley. That will be nice if I can pull that off.

But no more classes at the moment! Whee!

Hello everyone!
Do you need an editor? I can't help everyone, but I might be able to help you. Drop me a line, and we'll talk.
Red_MacDonald

I often worry that as I write almost entirely in the first person, my characters would end up becoming, to be honest, 'me' and all the same. It is a difficult one to judge, because in writing said lead role I tend to be doing it by the 'method'. Annie is me, Gillian is me, Steph shared more than a name while I brought her to life. What surprised me, however, was a remark at work.

Two of my colleagues are reading the dead-tree version of 'Uniforms'and one of them passed a comment after Chapter 2.

A couple of months ago my MS took a swing at the optic nerve in my left eye, blinding it. This wouldn't normally be disastrous except my right eye has always been very weak. I haven't been able to read since except by a magnifying 300 per cent on the monitor. I have regained a small amount of sight in my left eye, but all that's done is given me doubled vision.

Well, Christmas at my brothers went pretty well. My daughter had a lot of fun decorating their tree, and then we made marshmallow snowmen while sipping hot chocolate. So what if I didnt get to wear a pretty Christmas dress?

I can't beleive I am still going strong on this story, nor that the words just seem to flow filling the page fast, I haven;t even gotten to the first date yet and Im probably already at 6k words.

My uncle passed this evening from heart failure. He was my dad's second oldest brother and had suffered from the effects of Agent Orange for many years. My problem is this, I want to be there to support my cousins who know I have transitioned and mostly haven't had a problem about it. The rest of my dad's side are the ones I am worried about. They are mostly strict Southern Baptist and Pentecostal and they do not like anything that doesn't conform to their narrow minded view of the world.

This entry is inspired by LittleKatie's entry Monstrosity.

What I'm going to do here is take us all on a short photographical journey down memory lane, presenting - though old photographs - the path of destruction I'd been on before finally facing myself. I'm going to start in High School, since that's really where things started to escalate.

So, your follow up chapter is behind schedule? See title of this blog. Get it right, not fast.

BTW the quote is from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. The book version gives him a soliloquy that is even better.

The keyword quote is from Alice in Wonderland by Louis Carrol.

shalimar

Note: I almost really blew it: I almost used "you're".

If you've followed my occasional ramblings over the past couple of years, you may remember I once embarked on the foolish quest to compose a spreadsheet containing summaries of all the "Bike" episodes, together with some other relevant background information.

PS and I worked together to get the first 1,000 done, then I largely took over until the 1280s whereby my life got busier and I fell behind.

Let me just start by saying, I haven’t abandoned writing :-) I just caught a bad case of real-life recently that just won’t let go. The short version is, I’ve been sick, and my hard drive as well as backup external HDD both died on me, so I’ve been the last two weeks either lying in bed, or drugged out of my gourd on strong cold medicine while simultaneously trying to recover any data that wasn’t backed up online somewhere (Thank GOD all my stories were recently backed up on GDocs or I’d be totally screwed right now :-P)

I have to work all this week, so most likely, I wont get to chapter 4 till next week.

So, I see in the news this morning that the roll out for the XXX web sites is today. I wonder, with some trepidation, who gets to choose who gets that designation? Fro those with that designation, will it be like a dead albatross around the neck of the hapless sailor, or will it be like honey for ants?

I don't plan to let my virus guard regulate my contact with those sites; it is for me to decide.

http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/beach-boys-to-ope...

The article seems uncertain about the nature of the food to be served, though concentrated more on the cutsey titles of songs for the dishes. I thought that given the association with the Beach Boys, all the desert around Vegas, that they would surely sell the Sand-Which-is there! And with the name of the resturant, they could do a good sideline in sex toys -- Good Vibrations ought to sell a lot of those, especially if monogramed!! LOL